Letters: Mi Pueblo colors should match the rest of the shopping center

What’s happening to Gilroy! Please make the Mi Pueblo grocery store owners match the paint colors of the center. Boy, this issue sure puts a bad taste in my mouth … NO CLASS at all.

Crystal Mickler, Gilroy

Beware – a full ballot plate of tax increases before us once again

Dear Editor,

I urge your readers to vote NO on Propositions 21 (parks should be paid for by those who use them), 24 (gouges businesses), 25 (removes 2/3 protection for tax hikes) and 27 (reinstitutes gerrymandering), and Measures A (more Santa Claus County welfare, funded by an unfair parcel tax) and B (roads that our gas tax should already fix).

These are all TAX HIKES! Learn from history! What has happened every time they con us into paying more? They spent more (particularly on state employees’ compensation).

Just last year, they doubled our vehicle (property) tax (and they’re still just as deep in the red). They have cut NOTHING!

We saw county measures named A and B in the late 1990s, asking for more money for roads. Within a year, half the money was diverted to prop up the worst (most inefficient) bus system in the nation. During the tech boom a decade ago, the state employees all received generous raises, starting with the prison guards. They soon all were in line for their handouts from Gov. Davis (Jerry Brown’s former chief of staff).

The average California public employee – be it county or state – already makes 75 percent more than the average private-sector worker in total compensation. In the last 15 years, our sales tax has risen from 6 to 9.25 percent. This oligarchy overspends every year and thinks we will just keep picking up the tab. In the late 1970s, Moonbeam & Co. (the state led by Jerry Brown) was taxing people out of their homes. Now they’re whining about the late budget. Is it affecting you? Only if you’re a state employee, beholden to your overlord in Sacramento, which makes you part of the problem.

Vote NO on 21, 24, 25, 27, A, and B!

Alan Viarengo, Gilroy

Gilroy High Reunion didn’t receive enough coverage from the paper

Dear Editor,

On Sept. 11 from 2 to 10 p.m. there was a high school reunion at Gilroy Gardens. This was held for all the students who had graduated from Gilroy High School during the 1960s.

My eldest daughter came down from British Columbia, her brother came over from Santa Cruz and their sister here gave a pre-reunion party Friday evening. Many of their classmates came from all over to be here. They had a great time, renewing friendships and talking about their time together during those years and where the future had taken them.

There were no interviews, no pictures and no story in your paper. I find this a great disappointment for everyone.

Frances P. Sampson, Gilroy

Editor’s note: The Dispatch ran numerous photos on Sept. 17 of the event, and columnist Kat Teraji interviewed many people who attended in her column titled “Reunion seizes the ‘Happy Days.” We’ll be happy to accept further photos and a letter from anyone who attended.

$23 per hour and certification, it’s a smear Democrats planned

Dear Editor,

Meg Whitman pays a Nicandra Diaz Santillan $23 per hour for nine years. She went through an employment agency. The agency certified that the Nicandra Diaz Santillan was legal. Nicandra Diaz Santillan produced forged documents to both the agency and Ms. Whitman.

Does paying a nanny $23 per hour sound oppressive? Nicandra Diaz Santillan hires Gloria Allred, the queen of ambulance chasers. What does hiring Gloria Allred do for Nicandra Diaz Santillan’s credibility? Would you want your picture taken with Ms. Allred? Who seems more credible Meg Whitman or Gloria Allred?

Keith C. De Filippis, San Jose

Ask yourself before voting, ‘Does the candidate have a plan?’

Dear Editor,

One thing we can all agree on – voters are angry this year. The Republicans are trying to capitalize and direct it against the Democrats desperately hoping that voters have short memories. However, no amount of anger is going to solve America’s problems.

I’m sure each of us has noticed that decisions we make from anger often are decisions we later regret. So, when you listen to candidates, ask yourself if the candidate has a plan or is trying to inflame you in order to suppress good judgment.